An Evening With Gail Noonan

Vancouver, B.C., is home to some of the world’s great independent animators, including Gail Noonan. She studied animation at Emily Carr University of Art, and her early works featured hand-drawn cartoons confronting feminine issues related to media representation, with more recent mixed-media animations incorporating jazz and poetry. Films include:

Play Ball! (1989, 2min), 16mm

A film on how one person deals with life’s curve balls. It was completed on paper using a variety of drawing mediums.

Two Beautiful Stars, (1992, 3:30min), 35mm

Intrigued by both the stereotypical gender roles and social progressiveness in square dancing,tradition is combined with the unorthodox as dancers dos-a-dos in a parody of relations between the sexes. The music is a combination of two traditional reels played by Lisa Light, Rosie Szerepi and Glen Watts.

Your Name In Cellulite, (1995, 6min), 35mm

A film about the disparity that exists between a woman’s natural beauty and the ideal set forth in popular culture. Drawing on paper and tracing on cel.

The Menopause Song, (1996, 4min)

A four minute animated film about the positive aspects of reaching menopause. It is based on my song that was performed by a group I used to sing with called She-B-She. I restricted myself to using 48 pre-existing photographs of the singers taken for a poster and gardening catalogues that came in the mail. All images were then digitized and then manipulated in the computer environment using an Amiga.

Honey, (2002, 6 min), 35mm

An animated film based on a poem of the same name by Robert Morgan, a contemporary American writer. The film draws visual parallels between human and bee behavior using a variety of stop motion techniques.

More Sensitive, (2003, 2min), 35mm

With hand-coloured photographs, cutouts, plasticine, optical effects, and drawing on paper and cel, this short piece is a kaleidoscope of experimentation where a performer valiantly strikes the evening’s first piano chord. Jazz musician Kim Darwin provides the stylized music and delicious self-parody.

Would you Rather….? (2013, 1min)

Based on a radio segment written by Jonathan Goldstein, a son phones his parents to ask them if they would rather have a trip to the moon or a longer, all-expenses paid trip to Europe.

Chanterelle Rain, (2014, 4min)

A love song to the summer rains that give us the treasured culinary gift of these prized mushrooms. Stop-motion animation is used to create a lush and entertaining homage to the passion and obsession these members of the Fungal Royal Family inspire in mere mortals.

Sourdough Starter, (2016, 3min)

A short experimental animation based on Noonan’s hard-luck love song using a hybrid of traditional stop motion and special effects. References to various online sites are cryptically written into the lyrics in the search for both love and leavening.